Developers must build promised creche spaces – and find operators to run them, Fingal motion says

Fingal County Council needs to make sure any spaces meant for childcare facilities  in private new-builds are not left vacant, said Labour Councillor Mark Boland.

Boland put forward a motion at Fingal’s monthly council meeting on Monday evening asking that childcare infrastructure, like crèches, should be delivered alongside new homes – and that the developer should ensure an operator is found to run the creche.

“It shall be a condition of planning that the developer must ensure the facility is fully delivered and operational, with an operator secured,” his motion says.

And it should be “enforced consistently to ensure that childcare infrastructure is delivered alongside new homes and is not deferred, left vacant or omitted post-construction,” it said.

This follows on from a motion that he had passed at the council’s full meeting in January, Boland told the chamber.

That agreed motion asked the council’s chief executive, AnnMarie Farrelly, to take into consideration that a similar condition be put in place for all Part 8 housing developments, he said. Part 8 developments are the council’s own projects. 

The motion said “it shall be a condition of the planning permission that the developer must ensure the facility is fully operational and a qualified operator is secured”.

“It sent a very clear message to everybody that childcare is not an optional extra. It is essential infrastructure that we need to bring forward in all our developments,” he said.

This new motion covered private developments, he said.

Left struggling

Communities are left struggling whenever a childcare facility is promised in a housing development but is left vacant even as the families start to move into surrounding homes, or dropped altogether, he said. “We need stronger planning laws to prevent this happening in the future.”

Take The Forge in Lusk where the homes were occupied by June 2019, yet a creche site at the edge of the neighbourhood remained vacant.

Boland queried the number of vacant sites in Lusk that had been conditioned as creches, including The Forge, as well as Rahenny Park at the Balbriggan/Rush-Lusk/Swords Area Committee meeting in December.

The council had issued a warning letter on 25 June in relation to the Forge, said Fearghal McSweeney, an administrative officer in the Planning and Strategic Infrastructure Department. “Investigations remain open and ongoing by the Planning Enforcement section.”

These proposed facilities should be available and ready for an operator as a private residential development is becoming occupied, Boland said at Monday’s meeting. “So not at some vague point in the future. But it needs to be delivered alongside the houses, and it needs to be delivered in tandem.”

Boland’s motion was intended to provide a clear policy direction across developments rather than dealing with these issues on a case-by-case basis, he said.

Independent Councillor Joe Newman said he had encountered the issues of approved creches never materialising in Swords.

There are cases where a developer makes the change because a small creche site is occasionally not workable, he said. “And I can understand that, but it is very important that we keep an eye on it, make sure developments are not just putting in sites for the sake of the optics of it.”

Delivering creches is already difficult enough because existing planning guidelines for childcare facilities recommend one childcare facility with at least 20 spaces for every 75 homes, Labour Councillor John Walsh said. “It’s about ensuring developers can’t do whatever they like.”

There are, however, exceptions in cases where a development consists of one-bedroom apartments, or where an adjoining development has adequate childcare facilities, the 2001 guidelines say.

Motion agreed

It’s unclear how Boland’s new motion would work in practice, said Fine Gael Councillor Kieran Dennison at the meeting on Monday. 

“One thing that might be useful, as well as making it a condition of planning, is that the site be zoned for community infrastructure,” Dennison said.

So it can’t be switched to housing, he said. “And would have to be made available for – if no operator was available – then would be used for other community use.”

It would be difficult to zone specific sites for creches in the development plan, said Róisín Burke, director of planning and development at the meeting. “It would be quite difficult to bring forward a variation as an application for a creche comes in.”

But it is something they look out for when reviewing the development plan, she said.

Addressing Boland’s motion, Burke’s written report said while it is the council’s clear intention that permitted crèches be delivered and become operational, planning permissions must rely on conditions that are capable of enforcement under planning legislation.

The inclusion of a condition like this would present challenges from a planning enforcement perspective, she said.

The provision of childcare facilities in larger residential developments is usually secured in conditions around the phasing of construction, Burke said, speaking at the meeting.

But, Burke said, the motion was fine and she was happy for the council to review the wording of their planning conditions to state that a facility must be available for an operator moving forward.

The motion was agreed.